In honour of the passing of a soul that brought so much wisdom…

Thich Naht Hanh – October 11, 1926 – January 22, 2022

“Some life dilemmas cannot be solved by study or rational thought. We just live with them, struggle with them, and become one with them… To live, we must die every instant. We must perish again and again in the storms that make life possible.” Thich Naht Hanh

New Moon in Aquarius – 1 February 05.45 (UK)

Ah La Luna is bringing some fresh new energy next week, but it might not land until Mercury stations direct on 3 February

Aquarius is our quirky, humanitarian, airy friend with big ideas on how to save the world. Seriously. But this requires clear thinking

And this is what this New Moon calls for – a chance to clear the mind and find the stillness and peace between your thoughts. It’s a second chance to start 2022 if the past few weeks have been rough or unexpected 🙋‍♀️

It’s also a beautiful moment to let your freak flag fly and share your more outrageous thoughts or innovative ideas…there is space for them to be received under this Moon my loves

The most powerful way to connect with the Moon is by understanding how it transits your own Birth Chart. If you’d like to explore your Natal Chart with me and discover your Soul Mission in the process then Soul Mission Astrology is for you – a self-led journey through the key placements in your chart showing who you came here to be and what you came here to do – available to buy now right here
enter code OMT for a special discount until the end of Mercury Retrograde 😉

and One More Thing

Unwrapping Toxic Productivity… 🌟

My content has been a little different recently – as I’ve been deep-diving I wanted to bring you along with me as I explore and encounter different things in this current round of healing

This week I’ve been looking at productivity vs procrastination and experiencing a feast/famine mentality when it comes to work – sometimes it’s a million miles an hour doing everything and then some days/weeks it’s hard to even begin

Now there are potentially many reasons for these cycles – energetic, physical, hormonal and I have explored many of these over my time

But I always disregarded myself as engaging in ‘toxic productivity’ behaviours because I’m not a workaholic – in terms of average hours spent – and I can easily take breaks (maybe too easily 😉)…until I understood a much more nuanced definition

Toxic productivity is not just about the amount of hours worked or the obsession or compulsion to keep working

It’s also about the desire to be productive and takes into account what drives you to work in the first place, what is the core belief that motivates you to work?

Because it’s not necessarily the productivity in itself that is toxic, it is not doing the work itself that is causing imbalance and toxicity in your life…it is the thing beneath it that is driving you to work in the way you do – whether that’s 80-90hr weeks or 2hr weeks – that is actually the ‘toxic’ force

Let’s look at ‘toxic productivity’ through this alternative lens

Desire to be productive…what is driving you to work?

The obvious manifestation of ‘toxic productivity’ is the cliche of working long hours

‘I love the feeling being productive gives me therefore I work as much as possible’

‘Being productive makes me feel important, helps me feel seen, makes me feel valuable/needed therefore I work long hours to boost my self-esteem’

…this kind of thinking is a little like the addicted mind…productivity gives this person some kind of high and they just want more and more. Their productivity allows them to feel good about themselves

Let’s look at a different driving force

‘When I work I must be as efficient and productive as possible…and if I can’t achieve that then this means I am not valuable, I am not worthy, people won’t like me’

‘If I don’t get my work done in the most efficient way and if I don’t use my work time as productively as possible I would rather not do it and therefore I would prefer to quit or not start in the first place’

…this kind of thinking is much more the perfectionist’s mind…where their perceived productivity becomes a stick to beat themselves with. It creates anxiety and allows their shadow of ‘I’m not good enough’ to stop them in their tracks

Even though the external manifestation would look different in these 2 examples of toxic productivity, they both have their root in the same place

In both cases the drive or motivation to work comes from a place of negative self-judgement or self-loathing. The driving force that creates their relationship pattern with productivity is fear or shame

Through this exploration I realised throughout my life a lot of my desire to work has been driven by shame, mainly because of my own judgement of myself and societal comparison. My drive was based on my own expectations of myself based on my conditioning around how much work I should be doing and the quality of what I was producing

I also realised it wasn’t about what job I was actually doing – I have had jobs I’ve loved and jobs I haven’t – but the motivation – to move from shame was always there

And I carried that into my business

To acknowledge and accept that a driving force for my creations has been shame was deeply triggering for me. But of course, as you beautiful souls know, this is how we liberate ourselves

To dive into the feelings our ego’s have been trying to protect us from and to move forward embodying a new, lighter, more aware version of ourselves…that is what we live for, that is what transformation gifts us

Loving you all infinitely xxx